People tend to get lost in fashion.

Author: Mo Youqun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Since the mid-1990s, "fashion" has become a key term in both popular and elite culture in China. Wave after wave of fashion trends have swept in, some like fleeting smoke, others leaving deep imprints. The history of one generation's interaction with fashion is, in fact, a vivid and thought-provoking cultural and psychological history. This book, written in the form of essays and musings, portrays the colorful landscape of fashion from four aspects—thinking, temperament, reading, watching, and listening, as well as eating, drinking, and living. It brings forth personal reflections and thoughts, responding to change with lament, to absurdity with wit, and to trends with reflection. The term "white-collar" is essentially a play on words, meaning "plainly breaking people's collars." Even though dressed in suits, walking on carpets, and holding mice, they are exploited and oppressed no less than migrant workers. In a commercial society, beauty is often mass-produced, lacking individuality, but its overall value is undoubtedly much higher than in societies with less commercial influence. Deep in the mountains, it's entirely possible to stumble upon a few extraordinary beauties, whose simplicity is utterly enchanting. However, they are mostly considered "miracles," whereas in a commercial society, beauty has become a "habit." We don't expect great surprises, but most women have been fairly well-taught by fashion. Countless people speak, countless others write, yet how many truly endure through time? Everyone thinks they are diamonds, only to realize they are just glass marbles. But to continue deceiving others, they must keep pretending. The desire to eat food surges up to the roots of the tongue, only to harden into teeth; the desire to fight beasts surges up to the fingertips, only to harden into nails. So, how much soft yet fervent substance must be secreted to harden into bricks and mortar, into houses, like snails that possess their own shells.